Contact Email

History

Author Content

Despite our hopes, people have continued to abuse our opinion page policy regarding viewpoints. Therefore we will limit the nature, scope and frequency of viewpoints published on these pages. The criteria for a viewpoint going forward are simple: • The writer must be a verifiable expert with specific education, training or work history in a topic. • Viewpoints will not exceed 650 words. • We will publish no more than two viewpoints a week and an individual may submit no more than one viewpoint in a month for consideration.

"Editing a paper is a nice business," Charles K. Blandin once wrote. He was being sarcastic. Still, he believed in the free press and made it his life, leading both small weeklies and a successful metropolitan daily. The son of a Wisconsin farmer, he also was a teacher at one point and eventually a paper company magnate who took his earnings and created the Blandin Foundation based in Grand Rapids, Minn., so his company would contribute to "the community advantage" long after his death in 1958.

Readers will find the newly launched TVWeek tucked inside next week's edition. The full-color special section will appear every Wednesday and include programming for Thursday through Thursday. But TVWeek is more than a listing of what you might watch and when; it has entertainment news plus a wordsearch, crossword and Sudoku. "This gives our readers another reason to buy our products and another benefit," Publisher Neal Ronquist said.

Frankly, our opinion pages have been used and some would say abused by campaigns to promote candidates and political events. Many of the letters read like advertisements because they are advertisements. That is why, effective today, RiverTown will charge for letters endorsing candidates. This is something a few of our sister newspapers in Forum Communications Co. have done for years. We decided to join them for several reasons, including.

Russ Feingold waited six years in the wings, hoping to unseat the man who handed him a decisive loss. On Tuesday, Wisconsin voters declined to return Feingold to the U.S. Senate. Oshkosh businessman Ron Johnson handily won his re-election bid by carrying 52 percent of the vote with three-quarters of precincts reporting at press time. “It’s a big night for Wisconsin and it’s a big night for America,” news sources reported Johnson as saying at his campaign celebration in Oshkosh.

Arlin Albrecht parlayed a degree in economics and journalism into success in several fields, especially publishing, banking and health care. The University of Wisconsin-River Falls will honor the former publisher of 10 area newspapers on Saturday, naming him the distinguished alumnus of the year. "I feel pretty humble about this because I think River Falls has an awful lot of distinguished graduates," Albrecht said. "I'm grateful, of course, but it's an honor a lot of people should share." Those graduates include his wife, Marilyn.